<i>Plasmodium simium</i>: birth and evolution of a zoonotic malaria parasite species.

ABSTRACT: Plasmodium simium, a parasite of platyrrhine monkeys, is known to cause human malaria outbreaks in Southeast Brazil. It has been hypothesized that, upon the introduction of Plasmodium vivax into the Americas at the time of the European colonization, the human parasite adapted to neotropical anophelines of the Kerteszia subgenus and to local monkeys, along the Atlantic coast of Brazil, to give rise to a sister species, P. simium. Here, to obtain new insights into the origins and adaptation of P. simium to new hosts, we analysed whole-genome sequence (WGS) data from 31 P. simium isolates together with a global sequence dataset of 1086 P. vivax isolates. Population genomic analyses revealed that P. simium comprises a discrete parasite li

SUBMITTER: de Albuquerque NRM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12644964 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature